In The Past
by SprocketcommaJ
Summary: More times with Mako & Bolin. A pile of one-shots in chronological order posted as I get around to writing them.
1. Old Stories

_I'm gonna say Bolin's probably between 3 & 4 and Mako's 5 or 6? This is probably the earliest I'll ever go. - J_

* * *

"Mom…!" Mako gnawed his lower lip and gave his mother's hand a tug. There was a pharmacy coming up at the next corner.

Naoki looked down at him, discreetly raising a questioning eyebrow. His urgent whisper had her attention. And when he pointed with his head toward the shop approaching on their right, her eyes widened slightly with understanding. She gave him a sly wink and then cleared her throat.

"Sweetie?" she started, smiling innocently up at her husband. "Why don't we cut across that way today? We could stop and get the boys some steam buns."

"Ooh! Yeah! Can we?!" In his excitement, Bolin nearly topped down from his perch on San's shoulders, threatening to take a chunk of his father's hair with him.

San—checking quickly to make sure his scalp was still intact—plucked his son from his precarious position and set him on the sidewalk alongside his brother with a grunt. He didn't want to go a block out of their way to spend money they didn't have on treats they didn't need. And he was about to say as much when Naoki gently smoothed his lapels and looked coaxingly up at him.

"Oh, all right," he grumbled, rolling his eyes and deflating, but unable to keep the tender grin off his face. He never could tell her no. "But just this once," he insisted. "We can't afford to pamper ourselves just yet."

Their budget may have loosened up a little, but San knew better than to get careless.

Naoki planted a gentle kiss on her husband's lips. "Just this once," she agreed.

At the proclamation, Bolin, who up to that point had been tugging eagerly at his brother's arm, burst into a celebration distracting enough that San didn't catch the victorious grin that passed between his wife and eldest son. "Mako! Mako! You know where we should go?" he babbled, grabbing Mako by both arms as he continued to jump around. "What's that place we went to before?"

Mako let out a longsuffering sigh, doing his best to be patient. "I don't know. Ask Dad."

"Oh! We should get those dumplings with the stuff inside! They were really good!"

Twisting out of Bolin's grasp, Mako groaned loudly. "Okay! I get it! Calm down!" he snapped. He loved his brother, but guy could only take so much.

Sensing the onset of friction, San traded a look with his wife and took both of his children by the hand. He glanced conspiratorially up and down the block. "You ready?"

The boys barely had time to giggle in response before he spun them around and darted across the street with one dangling over each arm. All three of them landed in a laughing huddle on the opposite sidewalk, just catching their breath when Naoki joined them at a more dignified pace.

"You're going to drop them one of these days," she worried gently, giving San a light smack on the back of his head.

He shrugged, smirking as he turned their happy faces her way. "Do these look like weaklings to you?" he kidded. "Even if I did drop them, they could take it. Right, boys?" They seconded him so enthusiastically that San considered his point proven.

Naoki shook her head, but kept her thoughts to herself. She was in the process of fixing Bolin's hair when San glanced across the street and caught sight of the corner drug store.

"You see that," he inquired gravely, pointing low for his sons' benefit. "Let me tell you something about those pharmacists or herbalists or whatever they call themselves. They're not as honest as they'd like you to think."

Bolin joined his father's attention, absorbed in every word, but Mako slapped his forehead and sighed, looking to his mother for help. She sighed, too, and pouted in frustration. They'd done everything they could. There was no stopping this story once it got started.

"When I first came here to Republic City," San was saying, "I had to do all kinds of crazy jobs. And you see those pills they have stacked up in there? I used to sell those things." He gestured with disgust to the display of Pao-Lin's Cure-All Tablets that filled the front window. "Don't you ever buy anything that claims to be a Cure-All, because it's all a bunch of junk."

Naoki gave him a patronizing pat on the arm and tried to lead him away. She had heard this story so many times she could recite it from memory. How he'd peddled those pills as the cure for everything from toothaches to the common cold. How he'd reacted when he found out they were made of sugar and rice flour. Even Mako—who could barely suppress a groan of boredom—knew it word for word. That only left little Bolin.

Scooping up her youngest son, she leaned her forehead fondly against his. "You don't really want to hear this story _again_ , do you?" she asked pointedly, glancing up at San for emphasis. Her husband seemed to take the hint, abashedly stroking his moustache.

But Bolin grinned obliviously and hugged her head. "I like when he smashes the boxes. That's the best part!"

San blushed a little as she peeked out over Bolin's embrace and threw up his hands in surrender before awkwardly readjusting his scarf. "Okay. You win. I'm done."

Looking uneasily up at his parents, Mako frowned. He felt kind of bad for not letting his dad finish his story. After all, it didn't hurt anybody and he really seemed to like telling it.

But when San spotted the guilty look on his son's face, he just laughed and roughly tousled his hair. "I guess I'd better find some new stories to tell, huh?" he conceded. Draping one arm around his son and looping the other around his wife, he started off again in the direction they'd been travelling and pursed his lips thoughtfully for a second. "Let me see… Did I ever tell you about the time I outsmarted the Dai Li?"

Mako rolled his eyes. He knew that one, too. But instead of interrupting, he sighed indulgently to himself and kept walking. At least it wasn't the pharmacy story.


	2. Another Day, Another Dollar

_Bolin's supposed to be 8 and Mako's around 10. Also, I worked out the currency conversion assuming that one United Republic Yuan would be approximately equal to one United States Cent... in the 1920s. - J_

* * *

Everything was perfect. The street was empty. The boys were in their places. The mark was on her way out of the bakery with bags of groceries in both arms. The job couldn't have been set up any better if they'd scripted it themselves.

The target was a woman—young and pretty, dressed like she could spare a few hundred yuans without feeling it and, best of all, heavily pregnant. Between the bags and her belly, she barely kept a hold on the little clutch purse she carried.

She thanked the man behind the counter on her way out and the door jangled shut.

Show time.

Mako took his cue and hit the ground running. Rounding the corner of a building, he tore down the street at top speed, easily snagging the purse from her hand.

"Wait! My purse!" the woman yelped. She made a move to chase him, but he was gone before she'd even taken a step, disappearing down the first alley.

"Don't worry! I'll get it back!"

Bolin emerged from his hiding place and took off after his brother, ducking down the same alley and skidding quickly to a stop.

So far, so good.

The boys took a second to celebrate. They'd run this scam twenty times before, but it had never gone so smoothly. That woman, whoever she was, was eating it up.

"Give that back, you thief!" Bolin yelled dramatically, raising his voice to be sure she could hear.

Mako did the same, delivering his line loudly enough to be heard two streets over.

"Make me!"

Ripping a chunk out of the wall behind him, Bolin smashed it into the trashcans that lined the opposite side. Bottles shattered. Trash flew everywhere. One of the cans actually rolled out into the street, drawing a gasp of concern from the guest of honor.

It was time for the grand finale. If the rest of their antics hadn't convinced her, this one was sure to.

On his brother's signal, Bolin pulled a slab of concrete up from the ground and held it in place while, with a single blast of fire, Mako shattered the rock into a shower of stones and dust that rained down on the whole block in an impressive display of power.

Two cries of alarm followed the explosion.

Bolin stumbled backwards, clutching the right side of his face. But, without missing a beat, he took the purse and ran off before Mako could even ask what was wrong.

His big-brother instinct drew him a step toward the sidewalk, but he clenched his jaw and rooted himself where he was. If that woman saw them together, the entire performance would have been for nothing. Instead he peeked around the edge of the building, making sure to stay out of sight.

Still holding his eye, Bolin pouted his way back to where the mark stood waiting and limply held out her purse.

"Here," he sniffled, his enthusiasm thoroughly dampened. "He got away."

The lady's face, which had brightened at the sight of her bag, quickly softened with compassion. Without a second thought, she set her groceries on the sidewalk and knelt down to his height.

"Oh, my brave little hero," she cooed, gently pulling his hand away. "Let me see."

Bolin was too bewildered to resist as she took his face in her hand and fondly smoothed his hair.

Clucking quietly to herself, she gave a little sigh and brushed the tears from his cheeks.

"Well, you're going to have a nice black eye tomorrow," she concluded with a smile. Reclaiming her clutch from him, she dug inside and pulled out a couple of bills, pressing them gratefully into his hand. "There. Now you go buy yourself something to make you feel better, okay?"

"…Okay…"

"And next time, leave the bad guys for the police."

"Okay…"

He watched in a daze as she gathered up her things and walked away, the money clasped tightly in his little fist. It had been a while since an adult made a fuss over him like that and he wasn't really sure what to make of it. It was Mako who recalled him to reality.

"What happened back there?" his older brother demanded, storming out of the alley the instant she was out of sight. His voice was sharp, but his eyes were full of concern.

Breaking into a grin, Bolin tried to show him the fistful of money, but Mako caught sight of his face first, spinning him roughly around for a better look at the slowly darkening welt under his eye.

"Are you all right?! Let me see that."

"No, Mako, look!" he beamed, shaking him off and pulling away. "Look what she gave me!"

"What…?" Mako quickly counted through the bills and let out laugh of disbelief. "This is 200 yuans…!"

Bolin laughed, too, literally jumping for joy. "That's… a LOT! Maybe you should hit me all the time!"

Mako's expression clouded over at his brother's innocent comment and his attention shifted back to the swollen bruise.

"I didn't hit you. It was an accident," he muttered temperamentally as he shoved the day's gains into his pocket.

It may not have been his fault, but he felt responsible, either way. Looking around with a sigh, he gave Bolin an apologetic nudge.

"What do you want for dinner? We can get whatever you want."


End file.
